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The Bell Jar (film)
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Wikipedia article
'The Bell Jar' is a 1979 American drama film based on Sylvia Plath's 1963 book 'The Bell Jar'. It was directed by Larry Peerce and stars Marilyn Hassett and Julie Harris. The story follows a young woman's summer in New York working for a women's magazine, her return home to New England and her subsequent psychological breakdown within the context of the difficulties of the 1950s, including the Rosenbergs' execution, the disturbing aspects of pop culture and the distraction of predatory college boys.
Plot
Cast
*Marilyn Hassett as Esther Greenwood
*Julie Harris as Mrs. Greenwood
*Anne Jackson as Dr. Nolan
*Barbara Barrie as Jay Cee
*Robert Klein as Lenny
*Donna Mitchell as Joan
*Mary Louise Weller as Doreen
*Jameson Parker as Buddy Willard
*Thaao Penghlis as Marco
*Scott McKay as Mr. Gilling
*Meg Mundy as Bea Ramsey
Mia Farrow had been approached for the lead role at one point.
Production
Filmmakers had been trying to adapt the novel for the screen since the early 1970s.
The film was shot in June and July 1978 at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Four Winds Hospital in Katonah, New York and at various locations in New York City. The fashion-show scenes were shot on the seventh-floor terrace of the International Building in New York.
Reception
Janet Maslin of 'The New York Times' was unimpressed, stating that the film's portrayal of Esther was "disastrous [...] because it is the character's imaginative life that leads her to a collapse, and the movie barely even goes skin-deep. The audience isn't given the slightest clue about Esther's quirks, her fears, her peculiarly distorted notion of herself." The film has a "way of spelling things out ad nauseam and still not making them clear." Even where it should have flourished, like in descriptions of Esther's life in New York, "there's no satirical edge to any of this, and no dramatic edge either. It all simply plods along, en route to a nervous collapse that manages to seem perfectly unwarranted by the time it finally occurs."
'Variety' wrote: "Despite some decent performances, 'The Bell Jar,' based on the late poet Sylvia Plath's autobiographical novel, evokes neither understanding or sympathy for the plight of its heroine ... As played by Marilyn Hassett, who has a cool, 'Seventeen' magazine kind of prettiness, Esther emerges as a selfish, morbid little prig.""Film Reviews: The Bell Jar". 'Variety'. March 21, 1979. 24.
Gene Siskel of the 'Chicago Tribune' awarded the film one star out of four and called it "downright laughable, a stormy TV soap opera without that genre's sense of humor. 'The Bell Jar' is more than just a bad movie. It's a bad movie based on a book that has meant much to many, and they will be bitterly disappointed."Siskel, Gene (April 10, 1979). "'Bell Jar' is a movie many will see through". 'Chicago Tribune'. Section 2, p. 6.
Kevin Thomas of the 'Los Angeles Times' wrote that the film "would be ideal material for Ingmar Bergman, or more appropriately, since it is an American work, for the Woody Allen of 'Interiors.' It cries for imagery and stylizationsome kind of visual expression of Esther's perceptions and torments, but Peerce's approach is resolutely literal ... Luckily, Marilyn Hassett's Esther is involving and thoroughly convincingif you're prepared to share her frequent pain at merely being alive."Thomas, Kevin (April 6, 1979). "'Bell Jar' Evokes a Tormented Life". 'Los Angeles Times'. Part IV, p. 23.
Judith Martin of 'The Washington Post' wrote the film seemed "especially cruel" to kill Sylvia Plath again "by reputation," by making the heroine of her story "an elitist hysteric."Martin, Judith (March 30, 1979). "This 'Bell Jar' Makes Things Look Smaller". 'The Washington Post'. Weekend, p. 26.
Jack Kroll of 'Newsweek' wrote that "Marjorie Kellogg's screenplay is reasonably faithful to Plath's novel on the surface, but the movie totally lacks the mythic rhythm and force underneath the book's easy, colloquial style ... Marilyn Hassett looks like Plath with her fine-drawn Puritan beauty, but her clean, strong acting can't overcome the film's stifling conventionality of style."Kroll, Jack (March 26, 1979). "The Plath Story: A Poet's Crack-Up". 'Newsweek'. 77.
Penelope Gilliatt of 'The New Yorker' wrote: "A lot that is serious and troubled about insanity has been written in world literature, painted, and also dealt with on film. This picture is merely hysterical."Gilliatt, Penelope (April 2, 1979). "The Current Cinema". 'The New Yorker'. 110.
'The Bell Jar' holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on eight reviews.
Lawsuit
After the film's release, Boston psychiatrist Dr. Jane V. Anderson claimed she that was portrayed as the Joan character and filed a lawsuit. In the film, Joan attempts to convince Esther to agree to a suicide pact, an incident that is not in the book. Joan is implied to be a lesbian in Plath's novel, although it is never explicitly stated. Anderson's lawyer said that the film portrayal "has grossly damaged her reputation as a practicing psychiatrist and a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty." The lawsuit was settled in 1987 for $150,000.
The British Library holds the archive of poetry, diary entries, correspondence and copies of legal documents relating to the lawsuit, information that also sheds light on the publication of 'The Bell Jar' in the U.S. and the difficulties surrounding the film adaptation.[http://searcharchives.bl.uk/IAMS_VU2:IAMS032-002323933 Ted Hughes/Sylvia Plath : The Bell Jar Legal Case], archives and manuscripts catalogue, the British Library. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
References
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